Follow the crazy adventures of an Alabama cyclist taking on the Race Across America in 2015.

Speedplay zero cleats

Amazing cleat story here – after two and a half years and at least 25,000 miles I had to replace my speedplay zero cleats this morning. I knew that there was a problem about a week ago when the right cleat was loose even with the tension screws closed all the way down. It turns out that I had sheered off a plastic tab that helps hold the locking mechanism in place. It’s hard to tell in the blurry picture, but you can wiggle the locking mechanism with your hand even though it’s supposed to be secure. So today I installed a replacement cleat, and I thought the warning message was hilarious in light of the miles that I had on the shoe. It says to replace the cleat every 5,000 miles! Mine lasted 5x longer than that! Tonight’s the Charlotte Criterium (Presbyterian Invitational) and I’ll be posting my race report sometime tomorrow – hoping to get more points in the USA crits series to keep my top 10 standing (I’m currently 7th by 1 point).

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2 thoughts on “Speedplay zero cleats”

I’ve had a problem with the nuts pulling out of the black plastic plate that bolts to the shoe. It’s happened twice now. And I KNOW I’m not over-tightening them. Both on the right side. 15,000 miles of riding on their cleats and pedals. Not the same pedals or cleats either. They are all zero though.

Mark, I haven’t had that exact problem, but I have had a similar one where the socket inside the shoe that the screw screws into has completely rusted through and I can’t unscrew the screw anymore. So I’m wondering if it could be a shoe problem since perhaps the threads on the inside of the shoe are too narrow/thin to grab onto the screw when you are applying tons of force on the upstroke of your pedal stroke. What shoe brand are you using?